A study coauthored by faculty affiliates Joaquin Alfredo‑Angel Rubalcaba and Alberto Ortega explore the effectiveness of worker‑driven social responsibility programs on infant health outcomes in migrant farmworker communities.
Published in Demography, the research examines whether the Fair Food Program, a worker‑rights initiative supported by corporate premiums, has had measurable health impacts on the communities it aims to protect. While previous scholarship has documented the economic and health disparities faced by migrant farmworkers, this study is the first to evaluate how such programs influence infant health.
In an interview with The Fort Myers News‑Press and Naples Daily News, Dr. Rubalcaba emphasized the significance of the findings.
Low‑weight births isn’t just a number on a chart that we think about, but it’s actually really, really important,” he told the newspapers. “It predicts that child’s cognitive development over the long term… long‑term health and long‑term earnings and competitiveness in the market.”
Rubalcaba also underscored that the study focuses on children born in the United States.
Whatever one believes about immigration policy, these are U.S.-born children. I want to emphasize that,” he said. “These are children that have a right to first‑class citizenship… What looks like a labor policy, in the broader scheme of things, is simultaneously a multigenerational public health story that we’re trying to tell.”
Access the study here: Worker-Driven Social Responsibility and Infant Health | Demography | Duke University Press